New Job, New House, New Life

I have not been nearly as good at keeping up on this as I had hoped but alas, late is better than not at all. Well in the middle of August we found out that Zachary's unemployment had expired. Due to a miscommunication with the Trade Act department we had been under the impression that he still had a few months of benefits left while he was looking for a job. Not so! Anyway, that was horribly stressful and npt for the first time, I was sure we had hit rock bottom. About a week later Jive Software sent him an email requesting an updated resume. Zach sent it and within a few days they did a phone interview. That went well and they gave him a technical test to complete. When he had finished and submitted it they contacted him for a face to face interview. a few days later, he was offered a job. Yay! Jive is the company he had applied to last September while he was still in school. They are an amazing company and he had really wanted to work there. What a blessing and miracle that even in this job market he was able to find a job within only 2 months of graduaiton and have it be the one he really wanted. This was his No. 1 choice company and he was SO excited to have been considered. He excitedly accepted the offer and started work last week. He loves it. He said things are very busy because they are going through a hge growth spurt as a company and are having to really push themselves to stay ahead. He enjoys that he is working with so many other people who think the way he does and enjoy the same things. He is very very happy there.

Along with the new job came a new house. Jive is in Portland. With great sadness and many tears we said goodbye to Eugene and oved back to Salem so the girls and I could be close to family since Zach will be working long hours for a while. We moved into the house of Friends of ours who had recently purchased a new home and not had luck selling this one. It is South Salem and literally between all our family. It is 10 minutes West to see my Mom, Sister-in-law or Cousin and 10 minutes South to see my in-laws and other sister-in-law. That is Awesome! The house has 3 bedrooms so the girls no longer have to share which means everyone is sleeping better now. Grace handled the adjustment well. We had been telling her ever since Zach graduated that we would probably move to a new house and let someone else use our old one, so when the time came she was very excited for it. She loves the new house. As soon as I put the bumpers on the fireplace and hung our "Fredrickson's" sign she looked at it and said, "look Mommy, it looks just like home!" Very cute.

The girls are both doing well. Hannah has found her voice. She talks all the time snad will shriek at random. There seems to be no rhyme, reason or cause, but she likes to shriek. She has also learned how to roll over but will only do so if there is something she REALLY wants. She can also sit for about 3 minutes on her own before folding in half. A position I would think would be uncomfortable but she seems unphased by it. When she talks in the car Grace will respond by saying "oh really Hannah" over and over in increasingly frustrated tones. I try to explain that Hannah is just talking and Grace does not have to respond to her or be annoyed by her, but alas, each time we are in the car I hear "babble, babble, babble" "Oh really, Hannah?". Grace is doing great. She is hot tempered and stubborn as ever but that is what makes her, her. We are finding our new routine now that it is just the 3 of us all day and she seems to do much better with just me during the day.

I am well. I have settled in to the new house and our new life. I get to see a-lot of our extended family and that makes me happy. Zach gets home around 6:30 most evenings so we have dinner together and a couple hours each evening. It is sure different from having him around all the time but now when he is here I feel like it is better quality time because we know it is not going to last.

So that is us up to date. We have finally emerged from the waiting period and have started the next chapter of our life. Thank you to all those who have offered their love and support through my Dark Place. I love you and am so grateful to you all. You know who you are.